A: The synth geek gods will smite you down... Guitarist Drew (aka badhatharry) works in Bakersfield at Buck Owen's Crystal Palace. Buck was big country star. In 1971, Jeff Haskell released Switched on Buck, an album of synth versions of his songs. It was recorded on a huge Moog Modular, bought by Buck in 1969. The synth has presumably been hanging around his Crystal Palace club/museum/restaurant ever since. Until Drew found it and asked his boss if he could get it out and fire it up - from the pictures it looks to be in phenomenal condition and must be worth tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. He also joined the Vintage Synth Explorer forum and posted a very polite 'Oh wow, I might need some advice' post, which has received a string of patronising, angry and jealous responses (representative quote: "You should REALLY put this thing away and stop messing with it... Put it back where you found it, apologize to your boss for the harm you've done to it so far, and hope they don't discover what you've been doing and fire you.") Still, I guess the huge modular synth is some kind of compensation... (via Matrix Synth where there are more 'hey, you are a moron' comments and a long response from Drew)
it's so beautiful . . ..
ReplyDeleteI don't know where the "cupboad" is, so I wouldn't know. ;)
ReplyDelete...please can someone think of some good 'coming out of the closet' jokes?
ReplyDeleteYeah, what ever happened to the days when people could say, "Hey, congratulations! You are very lucky!" Geez, hasn't anyone seen the Antiques Road Show before?
ReplyDeleteI'm amazed that Buck Owens actually bought this. I can't imagine any of today's country stars doing something nearly as interesting.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately this applies to the synth community to: Penny Arcade
ReplyDeleteIn addition to being a successful musician, Buck Owens was a good businessman and I guess he would have had money to play with. I think it's cool he chose to experiment with new things such as the Moog, at least supporting his fellow musicians and their new ideas.
ReplyDeleteRobby
Outstanding find, indeed. Simply beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThough honestly, I've witnessed nastier threads over at matrix's site - just post any random twiddly "someone bought a Buchla instead of a new car" 200e demo to watch the sparks fly. Wisely, he disallows anonymous comments these days.
walkathon---
ReplyDeleteAnother reason that Matrix disallows anonymous comments is that too many people were calling him out on posting shady referral links to ebay scammers and thieves.
Ahh to think I've lived just miles away from the Crystal Palace. Hell I just had dinner there a few months ago.
ReplyDeleteI'm jealous, why didn't I look in the cupboard? Oh yeah I was too busy spending $8 on gin and tonics...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230182678336
ReplyDeletewow. what a find. the bizarre feeback he's had from the 'community' is hilarious. who are these jack asses ?
ReplyDeleteomg i live crystal palace. i know its there
ReplyDeletehttp://qs1435.pair.com/urbanout/blog/images/uploads/marissav_smug.jpg
ReplyDeleteSerious Moog Users Group
ReplyDeleteMany of those posts are irrelevant.
Well.. the most amusing thing is the HP box in the back. Was it put there before the moog...?
ReplyDelete/One Happy Swede
I feel embarassed for liking synths when I read such things from people with the same taste.
ReplyDeleteI mean, good for him, geez, I wish I had a strike of luck like that, that's all.
Its true, it becomes very apparent who the snooty know-it-alls in the synth community are when you read the comments that say "put it back and don't touch it!" I've always had a theory that people make amazing finds like this for a reason. Who knows? mayboe the guy who owns it will find a way to put it to good use.
ReplyDeleteJeff Haskell is definitely a professor at my school (University of Arizona). I sent him a link, and apparently the guy who originally programmed the synth also works here. His name is Lee Furr. He sent me this link, talking about the record: http://dakotacom.net/~lfurr/Moog
ReplyDeleteMy parents had this record -- it had to be my introduction to the Moog sound.
ReplyDeleteah!